Subaru XV Crosstrek

Subaru XV Crosstrek

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The funky XV Crosstrek is essentially a tall, wagon version of the Impreza, looking almost cool with its big wheels, high ground clearance, and body cladding. The interior, however, still suffers from an uninspired combination of bland design and plasticitis. All-wheel drive is standard; power comes from a weak four-cylinder engine mated to a five-speed manual (standard) or CVT (optional). The hybrid version’s powertrain is unrefined, but costs more and is slower than the regular model. Instrumented Test – 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid

2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid

What kind of sacrifices are you willing to make?

Subaru sometimes accomplishes amazing things by playing mix-and-match with the limited range of platforms and hardware at its disposal. When this approach works, we get enduring hits like the Outback and WRX. When it doesn’t, the six-star badge travels dead-end roads—see the BRAT, the SVX, or the XT. The 2014 XV Crosstrek hybrid could be one of the latter, playing the niche card to an extreme that might satisfy a handful of brand loyalists but with deficits that could make for a short life cycle.

Consider a few numbers in context. In our hands, this hybrid got 26 mpg. Most folks shopping for a hybrid expect more. It’s a good number, though, for an all-wheel-drive crossover and best-in-class if you make enough allowances to admit the Crosstrek to the Mazda CX-5/Honda CR-V/Ford Escape group. We don’t. Raising an Impreza five-door on its suspension to get 8.7 inches of ground clearance doesn’t really make it a crossover with the utility of, say, the larger, roomier, quieter Subaru Forester on the same platform. (We will say the XV hybrid is far quieter and feels more solid than the regular model, owing to its extra sound-deadening measures.)

Subaru might expect loyal customers to overlook this fact while embracing the brand's first hybrid, but the $30,120 price tag on our test example might cause a shopper to at least glance across the showroom. We got 19 mpg when we last tested a four-cylinder Forester (it’s not offered as a hybrid), so some might think 7 mpg is worth a few modest compromises.

Compromise goes deeper, though. That Forester got to 60 mph in 8.6 seconds with our test gear aboard; the Crosstrek hybrid took 10.1, a full two seconds slower than the five-speed manual-transmission XV Crosstrek tested last year. The electric motor adds 13 horsepower to the 2.0-liter flat-four’s 148-hp rating, and the 0.6-kWh nickel-metal hydride battery pack accounts for most of the 415 extra pounds of mass the hybrid totes around (3488 pounds versus the nonhybrid XV’s 3073). The performance decline is mostly attributable to the CVT. The hybrid’s electric motor is mounted within it, so there’s no alternative to this device, which embodies all the weaknesses we abhor most in CVTs. It gives you sound without fury, and our performance-testing crew noted it was profoundly unhappy in extended high-speed operation.

Slowness alone isn’t a terminal disease, however. We enthused over the 2.0-liter CX-5, despite modest acceleration, although we like the 2.5-liter version more. But whereas the Mazda’s handling and refinement made up for its power deficit, the Crosstrek hybrid remains a laggard. On a scale from crude to refined, it’s number-two fuel oil. Consider its clunky hybrid system. When introducing the car in Iceland, Subaru took pains to make us understand that its strategic partner, Toyota, made no contribution to this development. Too bad. Toyota’s expertise might have helped a lot.

Like other hybrids, Subaru’s shuts off the engine at a stop. Creep away at a very slow pace (recommended only at a stop sign without traffic around, unless you really like the sound of angry horn blasts), and it stays all-electric up to a claimed 25 mph. More often, though, the engine restarts in a way that sends a jolt through the car. A few times, it was so severe we thought a car behind us had tapped the rear bumper of the Crosstrek. First-gen hybrids from Toyota and Honda did this, too, but less dramatically, and that was many years ago. There’s no excusing it in 2014, flat-engine layout or no.

Like the nonhybrid Crosstrek, this model suffers from an electric-assist steering system that lacks not only feel but also consistency. There was some disagreement among our staff as to the quality of the brake pedal, so we’ll just call it okay. But okay doesn’t offset the weight gain, so the car took 181 feet to stop from 70 mph, which was seven feet longer than the nonhybrid version. On the skidpad, the hybrid cornered at 0.78 g, the nonhybrid at 0.81; both cars were riding on the same size Yokohama Geolanders.

Those are a lot of sacrifices to make on top of the $3000 additional base price of the hybrid model. The sticker says the EPA estimates the fuel saving will be—aha!—$3000 over five years. Our example was in Touring trim, which asks another $3300 for leather, a sunroof, a six-speaker audio system, and an infotainment setup with navigation, Bluetooth connectivity, and satellite radio.

Subaru’s loyal fan base might embrace this vehicle—we see the nonhybrid all over cities like Chicago—and it’s not hard to find advocates out there who still love the BRAT and the XT. Other hybrid vehicles with all-wheel drive are more expensive models from luxury brands, so you might forgive this Crosstrek’s rough edges if you simply must have a big battery pack and torque to all four corners.

We can’t help recalling, though, that Subaru once let us drive the diesel Crosstrek it offers in Europe. It was far more appealing than this car—actually, it was more appealing than the gasoline Crosstrek. Business cases be damned, the final product says that whatever the company spent developing a hybrid version for North America would have been better invested in certifying the oil burner for this market. “Diesel all-wheel-drive hatchback” looks like a niche worth filling.